Jacob in Cambodia 🇺🇸 🇰🇭@jacobincambodia
Six Nigerians Ran an AI Deepfake Romance Scam from a Nonthaburi Riverside Condo. A Cocaine Bust Led Thai Police to Them.
Thai police raided a luxury condominium on the Chao Phraya River in Nonthaburi on May 22 and arrested six Nigerian men running a romance scam ring built on AI-generated faces and fake video calls.
The trail started with cocaine. In April, police arrested a Nigerian man named Patrick and three associates on trafficking charges and seized 2.5 million baht in assets. The money trail led to foreign nationals on student visas living five or six to a unit in a high-end riverside condo near Phra Nangklao Bridge, none enrolled in school, none working.
Police executed three warrants on three units, forcing entry after the suspects refused to open. One man tried to climb over a balcony. Another lay hiding on a bathroom floor, texting the other units to warn them. Officers seized 18 phones, three laptops, and three bank passbooks, the phones still open to active romance scam chats.
The group posed as pilots, US military officers, doctors, and engineers, built relationships with older Thai women, then claimed a valuable package was stuck in customs requiring a transfer fee. Investigators recovered AI-generated Western faces used to produce fake video calls, and "sexy chat" scripts written to push older women toward transferring money. Police said a single well-crafted line could convince a victim to empty her account.
All six face initial charges of illegal association (อั้งยี่) and immigration overstay. Fraud and romance scam charges are pending.
